German police crack down on neonazi movement

Original source: German police kicked off a nationwide crackdown on the country’s neonazi movement on Wednesday.

The Federal Crime Office (BKA) said that police had raided more than 200 homes and businesses of people suspected of belonging to the country’s extreme right.

Authorities said that they had been searching for banned CDs and other items. The production and sale of right-wing music that promotes an extremist agenda or racial hatred is against the law in Germany.

The raids were part of a month-long investigation led by Stuttgart prosecutors and federal authorities involving around 100 suspects.

‘The primary aim of the concerted action by crime-fighting authorities is to seize and confiscate prohibited items like music in order to move effectively and extensively against the spread of right-wing extremism,’ the BKA said in a statement.

A BKA spokeswoman said that the raids were being conducted in all 16 federal states.

Over 60 years after the defeat of nazi Germany in World War II, fascism remains a problem in Germany, particularly in the former socialist eastern part of the country.